I have a friend on a cruise in the Caribbean trying to use his
Globalstar sat phone for email. Looking at the sat availability for
his area he can only see a bird for about 10 or 15 minutes at one
time. He is using Vista on his laptop. When he gets a connection to
the satellite it starts the data exchange but when he looses sight of
the satellite the connection is lost and the computer crashes going to
the blue screen of death. The whole experience is quite frustrating to
say the least. Does anyone here know anything about this problem ?
should the phone be maintaining a data connection to the software and
then doing a "hand-off" to the next satellite as it comes into
view ?
Any help appreciated !

wrote in message
...
I have a friend on a cruise in the Caribbean trying to use his
Globalstar sat phone for email. Looking at the sat availability for
his area he can only see a bird for about 10 or 15 minutes at one
time. He is using Vista on his laptop. When he gets a connection to
the satellite it starts the data exchange but when he looses sight of
the satellite the connection is lost and the computer crashes going to
the blue screen of death. The whole experience is quite frustrating to
say the least. Does anyone here know anything about this problem ?
should the phone be maintaining a data connection to the software and
then doing a "hand-off" to the next satellite as it comes into
view ?
Any help appreciated !


I've heard bad things about Globalstar from various sources. A relative has
a small plane, flies everywhere, and never seems to be able to use his
phone. He's switching to Iridium.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Jan 7, 10:04*am, " wrote:
I have a friend on a cruise in the Caribbean trying to use his
Globalstar sat phone for email. Looking at the sat availability for
his area he can only see a bird for about 10 or 15 minutes at one
time. He is using Vista on his laptop. When he gets a connection to
the satellite it starts the data exchange but when he looses sight of
the satellite the connection is lost and the computer crashes going to
the blue screen of death. The whole experience is quite frustrating to
say the least. Does anyone here know anything about this problem ?
should the phone be maintaining a data connection to the software and
then doing a "hand-off" to the next satellite as it comes into
view ?
Any help appreciated !


I read at a vendors site the global folks are putting more satilites
up asap cause the ones flying now are all falling out of the sky. As a
result the company is offering a "special" 2 year call package that is
way cheeper than irridium. I think maybe 25 cents/min. this is good
only for the next two years until the new birds get up and service
becomes more stable.

I wish I ahd saved the link but if you do some searching Im sure youll
find the information. My original though was wow: global phones 700
bucks compared to iridium at 1300 bucks and globals talk time prices
half the price of irridium................. now I know why Global ahs
such a good price package

Bob

On Jan 7, 10:04*am, " wrote:
I have a friend on a cruise in the Caribbean trying to use his
Globalstar sat phone for email. Looking at the sat availability for
his area he can only see a bird for about 10 or 15 minutes at one
time. He is using Vista on his laptop. When he gets a connection to
the satellite it starts the data exchange but when he looses sight of
the satellite the connection is lost and the computer crashes going to
the blue screen of death. The whole experience is quite frustrating to
say the least. Does anyone here know anything about this problem ?
should the phone be maintaining a data connection to the software and
then doing a "hand-off" to the next satellite as it comes into
view ?
Any help appreciated !

I would look at vista rather than the phone s/w. try a diffrent OS
like win 98, mac or linux. vista may be trying to update or just
report in to MS and the other cookies on the machine (yes folks will
say but i turned all that stuff off and be telling the truth in as
much as they know it).

On Jan 7, 4:22*pm, Two meter troll wrote:
On Jan 7, 10:04*am, " wrote:

I have a friend on a cruise in the Caribbean trying to use his
Globalstar sat phone for email. Looking at the sat availability for
his area he can only see a bird for about 10 or 15 minutes at one
time. He is using Vista on his laptop. When he gets a connection to
the satellite it starts the data exchange but when he looses sight of
the satellite the connection is lost and the computer crashes going to
the blue screen of death. The whole experience is quite frustrating to
say the least. Does anyone here know anything about this problem ?
should the phone be maintaining a data connection to the software and
then doing a "hand-off" to the next satellite as it comes into
view ?
Any help appreciated !

I would look at vista rather than the phone s/w. try a diffrent OS
like win 98, mac or linux. vista may be trying to update or just
report in to MS and the other cookies on the machine (yes folks will
say but i turned all that stuff off and be telling the truth in as
much as they know it).

thanks very much, we think you are right it is a Vista problem, others
with the same phone on XP are not having these issues. They hope to
get a copy of Linux as soon as the get into civilization (as we like
to call it) and try that as a solution. Thanks again, Bob

" wrote in news:5b9a4637-fc86-
:

On Jan 7, 4:22*pm, Two meter troll wrote:
On Jan 7, 10:04*am, " wrote:

I have a friend on a cruise in the Caribbean trying to use his
Globalstar sat phone for email. Looking at the sat availability for
his area he can only see a bird for about 10 or 15 minutes at one
time. He is using Vista on his laptop. When he gets a connection to
the satellite it starts the data exchange but when he looses sight of
the satellite the connection is lost and the computer crashes going to
the blue screen of death. The whole experience is quite frustrating to
say the least. Does anyone here know anything about this problem ?
should the phone be maintaining a data connection to the software and
then doing a "hand-off" to the next satellite as it comes into
view ?
Any help appreciated !

I would look at vista rather than the phone s/w. try a diffrent OS
like win 98, mac or linux. vista may be trying to update or just
report in to MS and the other cookies on the machine (yes folks will
say but i turned all that stuff off and be telling the truth in as
much as they know it).

thanks very much, we think you are right it is a Vista problem, others
with the same phone on XP are not having these issues. They hope to
get a copy of Linux as soon as the get into civilization (as we like
to call it) and try that as a solution. Thanks again, Bob

Make sure that you have the Vista service pack and later updates instaleld
before completely jumping platforms.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

most cruisers I have met refer to it as "Garblestar". At the talent
show in Georgetown (Wilbur, that's in the Bahamas") some kids did a
very funny skit about it.